HealthDay (10/11, Preidt) reports, “Moving from an area with a high poverty level to an area with less poverty benefits the mental health of some teen girls,” according to a study published online Oct. 8 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Investigators “looked at low-income families in public housing in five US cities — Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York — between 1994 and 1997. The families were randomly selected to remain in public housing (high-poverty areas) or to receive government-funded rental subsidies to move into private apartments (low-poverty areas).”

Taking a more negative view of the study’s conclusions, MedPage Today(10/11, Fiore) reports, “Girls in poorer areas may realize some benefit from moving into a better neighborhood, but the change may be harmful for boys.” In fact, “an intervention that offered vouchers to move to Section 8 housing significantly improved distress for girls (P=0.05), but it appeared to be harmful to boys for this outcome (P=0.03).” What’s more, “the intervention offered few benefits for those who came from families with baseline health problems, regardless of their gender,” the study authors reported. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Related Links:

— “Does Neighborhood Income Affect Teens’ Mental Health?, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, October 10, 2012.

BBC News (10/10, Roberts) reports that experts from around the world “are calling for a joint effort to tackle the world’s leading cause of suffering and disability — mental health disorders.” Approximately “450 million people have mental health disorders and more than three-quarters live in developing countries.” Figures from the World Health Organization indicate that 80% of people with mental illnesses in developing countries receive absolutely no treatment. Now, however, “the Canadian government has said it will give nearly $20m (£12.5m) to support 15 new projects designed to improve mental health diagnosis and care in developing countries.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health: Global effort sought, “Michelle Roberts, BBC News, October 10, 2012.

The Huffington Post (10/10, Wood) reports, “Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who struggle with the anger and emotional outbursts of combat trauma are more than twice as likely as other veterans to be arrested for criminal misbehavior,” according to a study published Oct. 1 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, which, “for the first time, draws a direct correlation between combat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the anger it can cause and criminal misbehavior.” After noting that Veterans Affairs’ Eric B. Elbogen led the study, the Post adds, “The finding that a combination of PTSD and high irritability can lead to criminal misbehavior is important because the treatment for PTSD provided to veterans by the VA and others often doesn’t include therapy designed specifically to reduce irritability, Elbogen told The Huffington Post.” Anger management “might be useful” in treating vets with PTSD, he said.

Related Links:

— “Combat Veterans With PTSD, Anger Issues More Likely To Commit Crimes: New Report, “David Wood, Huffington Post, October 10, 2012.

The New York Times (10/10, A17, Liptak, Subscription Publication) reports, “In a pair of cases argued Tuesday, the Supreme Court considered what to do when people convicted of capital crimes are mentally incompetent and so unable to help their lawyers with challenges to their convictions and sentences.” The Times continues, “The lower courts in the two cases had imposed indefinite stays, saying the proceedings should wait until the prisoners regained their mental competency,” but, the Times reports, there “appeared to be little support among the justices for that approach. Some of them appeared to sense gamesmanship from defense lawyers effectively seeking to make sure that death sentences are never carried out.”

The AP (10/10, Holland) reports, “The Supreme Court seemed inclined Tuesday to eliminate the authority of federal judges to indefinitely delay a death row inmate’s federal appeals in the hope that the convict would become mentally competent enough to help his or her lawyer with the appeals.” While “inmates appealing state death sentences to federal court have a right to a lawyer,” so far “the courts have never said whether the inmates have to be mentally competent enough to help their lawyers with their federal appeals.” Notably, attorneys “on both sides cited a court filing by the American Psychiatric Association which said that up to 90 percent of competency cases are resolved in six to nine months.” The cases in question are Tibbals v. Carter, 11-218 and Ryan v. Gonzales, 10-930.

Related Links:

— “Supreme Court Considers Indefinite Stays of Execution, “Adam Liptak, The New York Times, October 9, 2012.

The AP (10/5, Johnson) reported that the FDA announced it is “stepping up its fight against counterfeit and other potentially harmful medicine sold over the Internet. The agency is ordering operators of about 4,100 websites to immediately stop selling unapproved medications to US consumers.” The move is part of a week-long “crackdown by regulatory bodies and law enforcement” worldwide aimed at “making the global medicine supply safer.” In addition, it “follows the FDA’s launch last Friday of a campaign to warn consumers that the vast majority of online pharmacies do not follow laws or pharmacy industry standards and their products could harm or even kill people.” The agency’s campaign includes the new BeSafeRx website, which “explains the risks of fake online pharmacies and how to tell the difference between those websites and legitimate ones.”

Related Links:

— “FDA fights Web pharmacies selling unapproved drugs, “Linda A. Johnson, The Washington Post, October 5, 2012.